Producer of upcoming Final Fantasy 16 Naokia Yoshida commented on the length of the main story length, combat assist, difficulty, and more.

Final Fantasy 16 Main Story Will Take Around 35 Hours According to Devs

The arrival of Final Fantasy 16 is now just a few months away, launching on June 22nd. New details have emerged from the development team who shared some insight into the game on the Japanese Playstation Blog. There were also more gameplay details spilt in recent media coverage, with a gameplay demo.

How Long It Will Take to Beat Final Fantasy 16

In an interview with producer Naoki Yoshida, director Hiroshi Takai, and combat director Ryota Suzuki they went over just how long it will take for players to beat the main story for Final Fantasy 16. According to the team, you can expect to take roughly 35 hours to complete the main campaign. The game’s side content will just about double that, meaning we’re in for a good number of hours when it comes to the upcoming Action-RPG.

In order to one hundred percent the game which means watching all the cut scenes, that could very well be around 80 to 90 hours. Final Fantasy cutscenes are notorious to ply players with some lengthy scenes. FF16 won’t be any different as you can expect the main story to have at least 11 hours of cut scenes. Originally the devs anticipated the game would take maybe around 20 hours to complete the main narrative, however this has since increased as development went on.

PC or not for PC That is the Question

Yoshida also helped clear up the concerns around PC. Back in January the producer commented that fans should just pick up the PS5 version. However, in the recent interview, Yoshida doubled down that PS5 is a timed exclusive and the team are interested in making a PC port. But a PC port won’t be coming after six months of launch as the optimisation process will take some time:

I’ve caused a bit of a stir with my remarks the other day, but I’d like to touch on the PC version. First of all, it is true that FINAL FANTASY XVI is a six-month limited time exclusive on the PS5 platform. However, it is a completely different story that the PC version will be released in half a year. I will make it clear, but the PC version will not come out in half a year.

This is because we spent a lot of time and money optimizing the PS5 platform to deliver the best gaming experience. Of course, I would like to release a PC version at some point so that everyone can play as many games as possible. However, even if we start optimizing the PC version after the PS5 version comes out, we won’t be able to optimize it in half a year, so it won’t come out in a short span of half a year. I would like to release it eventually, and I think I will, but I am not at the stage where I can say when.

Playstation Blog Japan (Google Translated) – Naoki Yoshida

Combat Assist Options

Media outlets has recently had access to a Final Fantasy 16 demo which spanned 45 minutes of gameplay footage. A new feature coming with the game are accessories called “Timely” support rings. These rings provide some help to newer players as they make some aspects of the game such as combos, dodging and healing a little easier to handle.

It’s a Ring Thing

In the gameplay demonstration, it showed equipping the rings with five in total available. These are optional with two rings possible to be equipped at a time. The Ring of Timely Focus sets to slow down time temporarily before an enemy attack. While the Ring of Timely Assistance helps players pull off combat commands automatically, removing the need for commands for Torgal.

The Ring of Timely Strike lets players use a one-tap button to perform combos. The Ring of Timely Evasion can help Clive with auto-dodging abilities and the Ring of Timely Healing lets players auto-heal Clive with potions when health drops low. These accessories sound like a great option for those who are new to combat mechanics or for those who rather play casually.

If you want a step up in difficulty you can access New Game+ mode after you finished the game. While you can expect enemies to hit harder, they will also be different where they are placed throughout the game and provide “full-on different battles”.

No Difficulty Settings

This isn’t the first time Final Fantasy has gotten some modern combat options. In the first part of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake, the game was given a Classic Mode which allows Cloud to auto normal attacks. These accessories sound like something similar in a way but will concentrate on optional assists when it comes to combat.

If you don’t like the idea of making things less challenging, you can simply not use these rings by opting for the Action-Focused option. Story-Focused mode will grant players these accessories from the get-go. As there are no traditional difficulty modes, players can decide for themselves if they want to adorn these. As enemies are “just as ferocious in the story-focused mode as they are in the action-focused one”.

Respec without Cost

One of the most difficult choices when it comes to combat games is often deciding on a build. Sometimes this comes with a caveat of having no option to respec skills chosen or comes at a cost each time you do. Final Fantasy 16 sets to have an option that will automatically assign recommended abilities and a respec option if you decide your current build is not for you. Flexibility to rearrange your abilities sounds great, as you won’t be stuck with choices you might have made in haste to just get out there and fight.

Eikon abilities will grant players with the opportunity to learn abilities and use them alongside Clive’s normal combat moves. No respec cost means you can experiment with different options as you please.

AI Friends

As for party members, its no secret that your party members will be AI-controlled. Details have come out about Torgal a trusty canine friend who you can even command to heal if needed. But Torgal’s support is less effective, only partially healing and slowly regenerating over time.

These new details sound like Final Fantasy 16 has some promising changes to shake up the combat mechanics. I like the idea of having optional ring accessories to accommodate different areas of combat, especially when getting used to combo controls as well as abilities.

Final Fantasy 16 will be released on Playstation 5 on June 22nd.

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